As a founder member of Mystery Women in 1997, promoting Crime Fiction has always been my passion.
Following the closure of Mystery Women, a new group was formed on 30th January 2012 promoting crime fiction.
New reviews are posted daily, but to search for earlier reviews please click on the Mystery People link below and select 'reviews' from the welcome page. This will display an alphabetic option for you to find the review you would like to read

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Thursday, 20 September 2012

‘Lessons for Survivors’ by Charlie Cochrane

Published by Cheyenne Publishing.ISBN: 978-1-937692-14-8

It is 1919 and Jonty Stewart
and Orlando Coppersmith are survivors.They have survived the Great War and the influenza pandemic that
followed it, both of which have claimed the lives of many people they cared
for.The most remarkable thing of all is
that their love has survived the ravages of war and, although they are scarred
in mind and body, they are together again, ready to take up their disrupted lives.

Now they are back as fellows of St Bride's College, Cambridge, and living together in Forsythia
Cottage.The future looks hopeful; Orlando has been
appointed as Professor of Applied Mathematics and he and Jonty have been
offered an intriguing murder mystery to solve.The pair have been approached by the Reverend Ian Bresnan who has asked
them to discover whether his uncle, Peter Biggar, died from influenza or was
murdered by his young wife, as Peter's twin brother, Simon, had claimed before
he too died.For Ian Bresnan this is a
matter of urgency, because under the terms of Simon Biggar's will, if Ian
cannot establish a case that proves Rosalind Biggar killed her husband, Peter,
he will forfeit much of his uncle Simon's legacy, and he only has a month to
find evidence of Rosalind's guilt.

The investigation is not the only call on Orlando's time; he still has to write and
deliver his inaugural address and to chair an adjudication on a case of
suspected plagiarism.

As Jonty and Orlando
probe into the circumstances surrounding Peter's death, they discover that the
Biggar family history has dark roots, involving the fate of Peter and Simon's
mother nearly eighty years ago.

A far more personal danger takes the investigators' attention when Orlando is blackmailed to
vote against his conscience in the plagiarism enquiry.If Orlando
does not find the accused plagiarist innocent, the blackmailer will tell the
world the truth about Jonty and Orlando's
relationship.This would lead not only
to disgrace and loss of their academic positions but also two years hard
labour.Once again, Jonty and Orlando
have to fight for survival.

Lessons for Survivors is the latest in
the Cambridge Fellows Mysteries.I would
like to read earlier books in the series and discover how Jonty and Orlando got
to where they are now, especially with the interruption of an event as
cataclysmic as the First World War.However Lessons for Survivors
works well as a stand-alone novel.

Jonty and Orlando are engaging character and their relationship is warm
with a spice of mischief as they try to out-do each other in their pursuit of
clues.The book offers a convincing
insight into the language, attitudes and social standards of the time and the mystery
is pleasantly intriguing.Lessons for Survivors is a very
enjoyable read.

-----

Reviewed by Carol Westron

AsCharlie Cochraneaka Ann Laird, couldn't be trusted to do any of her jobs of
choice--like managing a rugby team--she writes. Her favourite genre is gay
fiction, predominantly historical romances/mysteries, but she's making an
increasing number of forays into the modern day. She's even been known to write
about gay werewolves--albeit highly respectable ones.She was named Author of the Year 2009 by the
review site Speak Its Name but her family still regard her writing with a fond
indulgence, just as she prefers. Happily
married, with a house full of daughters, Charlie tries to juggle writing with
the rest of a busy life.She loves
reading, theatre, good food and watching sport. Her ideal day would be a
morning walking along a beach, an afternoon spent watching rugby and a church
service in the evening.

Carol Westronis a successful short story writer and a
core contributor to Women's Weekly. She also writes contemporary and historical
crime and is currently looking for an agent or publisher. An Adult
Education teacher, Carol has always maintained that writing and reading fiction
is good for people and has spent much of her

About Me

From an early age I have been a lover of crime fiction. Discovering like minded people at my first crime conference at St Hilda’s Oxford in 1997, I was delighted when asked to join a new group for the promotion of female crime writers. In 1998 I took over the running of the group, which I did for the next thirteen years.
During that time I organised countless events promoting crime writers and in particular new writers. But apart from the sheer joy of reading, ‘I actually love books, not just the writing, the plot or the characters, but the sheer joy of holding a book has never abated for me. The greatest gift of my life has been the ability to read'.